Peter Dinklage Joins The Hunger Games Prequel, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Serpents"

The Hunger Games prequel movie, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Serpents,” is officially underway, and it just added an award-winning major actor. On July 18, Deadline announced that Peter Dinklage was the newest star to join the cast. The Emmy winner will play Casca Highbottom, the Academy's Dean.

Dinklage joins Rachel Zegler, who will play Lucy Gray Baird, and Tom Blyth, who will play young Coriolanus Snow – aka President Snow – in the film. On June 22, Lionsgate also announced that Hunter Schafer would be joining the film as Tigris Snow. Coriolanus is his cousin and confidant who advises him on everything, according to Lionsgate.

Lionsgate announced at CinemaCon on April 28 that the film is currently in production and will be released on November 17, 2023. They have not released any casting information at this time. The upcoming film is based on The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins' prequel of the same name, which was released in May 2020. The plot revolves around an 18-year-old Coriolanus, who is chosen to mentor Lucy Gray Baird - a tribute from District 12 during the 10th Hunger Games - while attending Capitol Academy. The events of the story take place 64 years before the original novels and films and only 10 years after the first Panem rebellion. While Katniss Everdeen's Panem is under harsh government control, this Panem is still dealing with the aftermath of war. At CinemaCon, Lionsgate released stills from the film but did not reveal further details. The brief clip showed only icy tree branches, along with text that read, "The world will find out who is a songbird and who is a snake."

The original Hunger Games movies starred Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the unlikely and reluctant hero who becomes the symbol of a revolution. Lawrence was joined by Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Amandla Stenberg, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz and